Spurs whup up on Jazz

Tim Duncan had his least productive night on the season — but in this case it was more of a night off than an off night. The Spurs hardly needed him as they pounded the Utah Jazz 109-76 Saturday night at the SBC Center.

Duncan finished with 12 points, the first time this season he has scored less than 17. But also had his minutes limited and spent most of the fourth quarter enjoying the game from the bench as the Spurs led most of the second half by 20 to 30 points.

“It keeps them in shape,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said of the chance to give more playing time to his bench playes. “It gives them a little rhythm and a little confidence. It gives us a chance to see them playing instead of just practicing.”

The game was such a blowout that not only did all five starters get to sit out the final nine minutes, so did reserve Malik Rose, who finished with a season-high 16 points.

“It’s been awhile,” Rose said of have a chance to sit because his work was already done with the victory in hand. “That’s how it was a couple of years ago. I played a lot of minutes. I was glad for the team that we were able to get it done like that tonight.”

Rose did all his damage in 19 minutes, hitting 4 of 6 from the field and 8 of 8 free throws.

Manu Ginobili led the Spurs with 17 points, Tony Parker had 14 points and Bruce Bowen had 11.

Devin Brown had a scoring surge for the Spurs late in the game. He finished with a season-high 14 points — 11 in the fourth quarter including an alley-oop dunk off a pass from Brent Barry.

“It’s great to see him running up and down the floor and making plays,” Duncan said of Brown. “That was a great play.”

In last season’s final meeting with the Jazz, Brown played 28 minutes and scored 19 points on 8-of-13 shooting. He also collected seven rebounds.

Brown had yet to score more than eight points in a game this season. He has seen his amount of playing time vary widely from one game to the next. He had eight points on 4-of-8 shooting in the Spurs’ 91-71 victory over the Warriors on Nov. 10.

The Jazz were out of the game almost from the beginning and got almost nothing from their top two scorers. Carlos Boozer, their No. 1 scorer this season, finished with six points. Andrei Kirilenko, their No. 2 scorer, left the game in the second quarter with a knee injury and didn’t score at all. He did not return to the game.